JP2812294B2 - Intersection guidance device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device mounted on a vehicle and used for guidance of an intersection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an on-vehicle navigation device has been known for assisting a vehicle traveling on an unfamiliar land. This navigation device has, for example, a direction sensor, a distance sensor, a GPS receiver, a road map memory, a computer, and the like. The direction data input from the direction sensor, the traveling distance data input from the distance sensor, and the GPS reception are provided. It has a function to detect the vehicle position based on the position data input from the machine. Such a navigation device may be provided with a route calculation function of automatically calculating a recommended route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination by a computer in accordance with a destination setting input by a passenger. If this function is used, it is possible to reliably reach the destination by traveling along the calculated route without knowing the road to the destination.

[0003] By the way, the apparatus for calculating a recommended route as described above can guide a route to be followed by a vehicle at an intersection when the vehicle approaches a main intersection on the recommended route. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-259412. The publication discloses the technique. According to the technology disclosed in the above publication, when a vehicle approaches an intersection to be guided, a sound such as "Please turn left at a crossroad F with a liquor store next XX" is notified. Then, guidance of a route to be followed by a vehicle at the intersection is provided by voice including contents including a specific target name at the intersection.

[0004]

However, drivers and passengers (hereinafter collectively referred to as "drivers")
Even if you hear a voice message saying "Please turn left at the crossroad F with the next liquor store XX", for example, "Sake store XX" is a small liquor store or a liquor store with an inconspicuous signboard. In some cases, the liquor store cannot be grasped at a glance, and it may be difficult to specify the intersection. This tendency is particularly remarkable when the driver does not know the intersection or the state of the intersection.

[0005] Therefore, the driver spends wasted time searching for "the liquor store XX", and in some cases, the driver mistakenly passes the intersection because he cannot find the "liquor store XX". In some cases. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned technical problem, and to provide a driver with a feature so as to be able to grasp at a glance an intersection to be guided, thereby informing the driver of the intersection reliably. It is an object of the present invention to provide an intersection guidance device capable of performing the following.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an intersection guidance apparatus for detecting a position of a vehicle, the vehicle traveling along a predetermined route. At this time, guidance information storage means for storing guidance information for guiding the intersection on the route, and guidance information stored by the guidance information storage means according to the position of the vehicle detected by the position detection means An intersection guidance device provided with an informing means for informing, which stores facility name storage means for storing one or more names of facilities at each intersection, and road map data including position data representing the positions of the facilities. Road map storage means, the names of the facilities at the guidance target intersection stored by the facility name storage means, and the names of the facilities at other intersections around the guidance target intersection. Comparing means for selecting a name of a facility that characterizes the guidance target intersection, wherein the notifying means provides a guidance target based on the facility name and the location data of the facility selected by the selection means. The feature is that the guidance information of the intersection is notified.

According to the above configuration, when the vehicle approaches the intersection to be guided, the name of the facility at the intersection to be guided and the name of the facility at another intersection around the guided intersection are changed. Compare. In the comparison, the name of the facility that characterizes the guidance target intersection is preferentially selected.
Then, based on the name of the selected facility or the position data indicating the position of the facility, the guide information of the intersection is notified. Therefore, the driver can easily find the facility selected preferentially, so that the intersection can be specified more accurately.

The "facility" includes, in addition to buildings and buildings such as "buildings", "parks", and "pedestrian bridges", "fields",
It shall include land such as "vacant land". The “guidance information” includes information by voice or information by display. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the intersection guide device according to the first aspect, the facility name storage unit stores a name of a facility at the guidance target intersection in a direction in which a vehicle enters the guidance target intersection. It is characterized by being stored separately.

According to the above configuration, the names of the facilities at the intersection that are easy to see from the direction in which the vehicle enters the guidance target intersection are stored. Therefore, when the vehicle approaches the guidance target intersection, the name of the facility that is easy to see is preferentially selected from the direction in which the vehicle enters and guided to the driver, so that the driver can specify the intersection more accurately. .

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an intersection guidance device applied to a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The intersection guidance device includes a position detection unit 5 that detects a traveling position of the vehicle by using a distance sensor 1 and a direction sensor 2 that detect a moving amount and a directional change amount of the vehicle, respectively.

The position detector 5 calculates the current position data of the vehicle by so-called self-contained navigation based on the vehicle movement data and the heading change data output from the sensors 1 and 2. Further, the position detecting section 5 has a function of calculating travel locus data based on the current position data of the vehicle and correcting the vehicle position based on a comparison between the travel locus data and road data stored in the disk D. (So-called map matching method;
No. 0).

To detect the current position of the vehicle, the GPS receiver 4 connected to the position detector 5
A GPS navigation system in which a radio wave transmitted from the S satellite is received by the GPS receiver 4 via the GPS antenna 3 and the position of the vehicle is detected based on the propagation delay time of the radio wave may be applied. Further, the current position of the vehicle obtained by the self-contained navigation may be corrected based on the current position of the vehicle obtained by the GPS navigation (see Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-92388).

The current position data of the vehicle detected by the position detecting section 5 is given to the control section 6. The control unit 6 functions as a control center of the navigation device.
PU 61, RAM 62, route calculation unit 63 for calculating a recommended route, traveling monitoring unit 64 for monitoring whether a vehicle has deviated from the recommended route, and route guidance for searching for an intersection to be guided on the recommended route It comprises a part 65 and the like.

When various calculation conditions such as a destination are input from the remote control key 10, the route calculation unit 63 stores the input destination data and the like in the RAM 62, and also stores a route calculation road from a disk D to be described later. Read map data. Then, the route calculation unit 63 calculates a recommended route between the destination and the current location detected by the position detection unit 5 using, for example, the Dijkstra method or the potential method. The calculated recommended route is superimposed on the road map displayed on the display device 9 by, for example, a broken line.

The controller 6 is connected to a man-machine interface 8 which controls an interface with a driver or a passenger. The man-machine interface unit 8 includes a display device 9 having a display screen including a liquid crystal display element, a CRT, a plasma element, or the like.
Is connected. Further, the man-machine interface unit 8 is connected with a remote control key 10 composed of, for example, a joystick remote control key for inputting a request for a route calculation, and an audio output device 11 for informing the driver of the route guidance of the intersection by voice. I have.

The control unit 6 includes, for example, a CD-RO
M, a disk control unit 7 to which a disk D composed of a magneto-optical disk or the like is loaded is connected. The disk D divides a road map (including a highway national road, an exclusive motorway, a general national road, a prefectural road, a city road of a designated city, and other living roads) into a mesh shape. It stores road map data for position detection, road map data for route calculation, and the like, which are composed of a combination of nodes corresponding to road intersections or bending points and links connecting the nodes.

When the current position data of the vehicle is given from the position detection unit 5, the control unit 6 drives the disk control unit 7,
The road map data around the current position of the vehicle is read from the disk D via the disk control unit 7. Thereafter, display data is created based on the read road map data and the current vehicle position data, and the display data is provided to the display device 9 via the man-machine interface unit 8.
The current position of the vehicle is displayed by a car mark together with the road map.

The disc D stores guidance information corresponding to coordinate positions on a road map such as major intersections and entrances and exits of expressways. The guidance information includes right / left turn guidance information at an intersection, straight-ahead guidance information, arrival guidance information at a destination, and the like. For example, turn information
When the vehicle approaches a predetermined distance before the coordinate position corresponding to the main intersection, a display imitating the intersection is displayed on the display screen of the display device 9 to indicate the course of the recommended route, or an audio output device. 11 is information for generating a sound.

Further, the disc D includes, for example, "bank", "post office", "department",
"Hotel", "convenience store", "park",
Buildings or land, such as "parking lots", "gas stations", or at intersections, such as "pedestrian bridges"
The names of buildings such as "overpasses" (hereafter, buildings, land or buildings are collectively referred to as "facilities") are stored in the form of a facility information table shown below for each intersection. Have been.

Table 1 is an example of a facility information table in which facility information is stored.

[0021]

[Table 1]

The name of the facility is used to characterize the intersection to be guided and notify the driver (to be described later). FIG. 2 is an illustrative view showing one example of a positional relationship between the intersection A and the facility. Referring to FIG. 2 and Table 1, in the facility information table, for example, “Pedestrian bridge”, “Bank”, “Park”, “Gas station”, etc., which are the names of the facilities at the intersection A, are preset priority levels. Ranking (in Table 1,
The lower number has the higher priority. ). The priority order is such that the characteristics of the intersection are expressed more clearly (for example, in order of the area of the facility or in the order of the height of the facility) so that the driver can easily identify the intersection by the name of the facility. ) Is set in advance.

The names of the facilities stored in the facility information table may be unique names such as, for example, generally well-known XX banks and XX department stores. Further, when the priority order of the facility or the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection differs depending on the direction in which the vehicle enters the intersection, the name of the facility stored in the facility information table indicates that the vehicle has entered the intersection. It may be stored for each coming direction.

Table 2 is an example of a facility information table in the case where the name of the facility is stored for each intersection in each direction of approaching the intersection of the vehicle.

[0025]

[Table 2]

According to Table 2 and FIG.
If s enters the intersection from the south, the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection is “pedestrian bridge”. On the other hand, when the vehicle Cw enters the intersection from the west, the “pedestrian bridge” is hard to see, so the name of the facility characterizing the intersection is “park”. As described above, even at the same intersection, the name of the facility characterizing the intersection may differ depending on the direction in which the vehicle enters. Therefore, the name of the facility may be stored as shown in Table 2.

Further, the disk D stores a so-called landmark corresponding to the above-mentioned facility on a road map representing the above-mentioned facility. Specifically, the image data of the landmark and the position coordinate data of the landmark on the road map are stored. The landmark is, for example, “〒” for “post office”, “P” for “parking lot”, and may be a unique mark that can specify “xx bank”, It may be a character or the like. The image data and the position coordinate data of these landmarks are used for disc D when guiding the intersection.
And is used to display the landmark together with the intersection on the display device 9.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control process of the intersection guidance device. This flowchart shows that when performing route guidance for an intersection on a recommended route, among the facilities at the intersection, the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection is selected, and the voice including the name of the selected facility, or The display including a landmark corresponding to the facility represents a control process for providing a driver with route guidance of the intersection.

First, the route calculation section 63 calculates a recommended route when a destination is input, for example, by operating the remote control key 10 of the driver (step S1). During traveling of the vehicle, the traveling monitoring unit 64 monitors whether the vehicle is traveling on a recommended route (step S).
2). The method of this monitoring may be determined, for example, based on the fact that the vertical distance from the position of the vehicle to the road constituting the recommended route is greater than a predetermined reference value (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-55489). Further, instead of determining whether the vehicle is deviating from the recommended route, the driver may determine whether the vehicle is deviating from the recommended route.

Next, in the route guiding section 65, the position detecting section 5
Based on the current position data obtained in
An intersection to be guided on the recommended route calculated in (1) is searched (step S3), and a process of determining whether or not the intersection exists on the recommended route is performed (step S4). The intersection targeted for guidance refers to a major intersection set in advance so as to provide guidance on a route among the intersections included in the road map data. If this intersection is found as a result of the determination processing in step S4, the route guidance unit 65 gives the CPU 61 a notice to that effect. If this intersection is not found, the process returns to step S3 to continue searching for this intersection.

The CPU 61 reads the name of the facility at the searched intersection from the above-mentioned facility information table (see Table 1) and temporarily stores the name in the work area of the RAM 62 (step S5). At this time, only the name of the facility having the first priority is read from the facility information table. In this case, the disk D corresponds to facility name storage means.

Next, a process of determining whether or not there is another intersection on the recommended route and within a circumferential range defined by a predetermined distance from the coordinate position of the intersection to be guided is performed. Perform (Step S6). FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a positional relationship between an intersection A to be guided and the above-mentioned circumferential range. According to the figure, on a recommended route (refer to a dotted line in FIG. 4) and within a circumferential range defined by a predetermined distance L from a coordinate position of the intersection A (2 in FIG. 4).
Other intersections B and C are present in the dotted frame.
Therefore, in this case, the names of the facilities at the other intersections B and C are read from the facility information table (see Table 1), and the RA
It is stored in the work area of M62 (step S7). Also in this case, only the name of the facility having the first priority is read from the facility information table.

Next, the CPU 61 compares the read names of the facilities at the intersection A and the other intersections B and C (step S8), and selects the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection A to be guided. (Step S9). In this case, the CPU 61 functions as a selection unit. For example, Table 1
Referring to the facility information table of, the name of the facility that most characterizes the intersection A is “pedestrian bridge”. Also, the name of the facility that most characterizes the other intersection B is "pedestrian bridge",
The name of the facility that most characterizes the other intersection C is "Movie Theater"
It is. In this case, “Pedestrian bridge” which is the name of the facility that most characterizes the intersection A is canceled because it is the same as the name of the facility that most characterizes the other intersection B. Then, the name of the facility having the second priority, which characterizes the intersections A and B, is read from the facility information table. The name of the second-ranking facility that characterizes intersection A is “bank”, and the name of the second-ranking facility that characterizes the other intersection B is “hotel”. Therefore, in this case, "bank" is preferentially selected as the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection A to be guided.

As described above, in this embodiment, the intersection A
Is compared with the names of the facilities at the other intersections B and C, and the name of the facility that can uniquely specify the intersection A is selected. Because the driver has two neighbors
This is because even if a facility that characterizes two intersections is indicated, it may not be known which intersection the facility actually indicates. However, as described above, if the unique facility characterizing the intersection is preferentially selected and presented to the driver, the driver can easily and reliably specify the intersection.

On the other hand, in step S6, another intersection on the recommended route between the vehicle and the intersection is searched, and as a result, another intersection exists within the circumferential range defined by the predetermined distance L set in advance. If not, one facility name (for example, "bank") at the intersection A to be guided is selected from the facility information table (step S1).
0).

The name of the facility selected in this way is
It is sent from the control unit 6 to the man-machine interface unit 8. At this time, the image data and the position coordinate data of the landmark corresponding to the facility selected at this time are read from the disk D, and sent from the control unit 6 to the man-machine interface unit 8. Then, for example, if “bank” is selected in step S9 or S10, the voice output device 11 outputs a “XX” part of a standard sentence such as “Please turn right at an intersection with XX”. "Bank"
"Please turn right at the intersection with the bank"
Is output (step S11). Further, from the display device 9, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, the course of the recommended route at the intersection is indicated by an arrow E,
A landmark representing "bank" is displayed near the intersection. In this case, the audio output device 11 and the display device 9 correspond to a notification unit. The driver can easily find the "bank" from the facilities around the intersection or the like by the voice guidance or the display guidance, so that the intersection with the "bank" can be specified.

As described above, in this embodiment,
Compare the name of the facility about the intersection to be guided with the name of the facility about other intersections located around it,
By selecting the name of the facility that characterizes the intersection to be guided, guidance based on that facility can be provided as route guidance for the intersection. Therefore, the driver can grasp the intersection at a glance, and can specify the intersection more reliably and accurately.

In the present embodiment, the names of the facilities are compared at three intersections. However, for example, the facilities at two intersections of the intersection A and another intersection B in front of the intersection A when viewed from the vehicle side are compared. May be compared, or the names of facilities at two intersections of the intersection A and another intersection C located on the other side of the intersection A when viewed from the vehicle side may be compared. Alternatively, facility names may be compared for four or more intersections, including intersections to be guided. By increasing the number of target intersections for comparing the names of the facilities, the driver can more accurately specify the target intersection for guidance.

In the present embodiment, the recommended route is obtained by the route calculation function. However, the travel route may be set in advance by, for example, manually inputting a stopover before traveling by a driver. If the traveling route is set in advance, the intersection on the traveling route can be automatically guided as described above. Although the description of the present embodiment is as described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and within the scope of technical matters described in the claims,
Various changes can be made.

[0040]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the name of the facility characterizing the intersection to be guided is compared with the names of the facilities at other intersections, the result of the selection, and the guidance Since the target intersection is characterized and notified to the driver, it is possible to provide an intersection guidance device that can surely cause the driver to specify the intersection to be guided. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately provide the driving assistance to the driver who drives the vehicle passing through the intersection.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the name of the facility at the guidance target intersection is stored for each direction in which the vehicle enters the intersection, and the guidance target intersection is identified based on the name of this facility. Since the vehicle is characterized and notified, the driver can more accurately identify the intersection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an intersection guidance device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative view showing a positional relationship between an intersection and a facility;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of the intersection guidance device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing a positional relationship between an intersection to be guided and an adjacent intersection;

FIG. 5 is a diagram when an intersection to be guided is displayed together with a landmark;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 position detection unit 6 control unit 8 man-machine interface unit 9 display device 11 sound output device 61 CPU 62 RAM 63 route calculation unit 64 running monitoring unit 65 route guidance unit D disk

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-7-63571 (JP, A) JP-A-7-98800 (JP, A) JP-A 8-128848 (JP, A) JP-A 9-152354 (JP) , A) JP-A-9-167297 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G08G 1/0969 G09B 29/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. Position detecting means for detecting a position of a vehicle, and guide information storing means for storing guide information for guiding an intersection on the route when the vehicle travels along a preset route. And an informing means for informing the guidance information stored by the guidance information storage means according to the position of the vehicle detected by the position detection means, wherein the name of the facility at each intersection Facility name storage means for storing one or more facility information; road map storage means for storing road map data including position data representing the location of the facility; and a guide object intersection stored by the facility name storage means. Selecting means for comparing the name of the facility with the names of facilities at other intersections around the guidance target intersection, and selecting the name of the facility characterizing the guidance target intersection; And the notification means, said selected by the selecting means, facility names and intersection guidance device characterized by notifying guidance information guidance target intersection based on the position data of the facility. 2. The facility name storage means according to claim 1, wherein the name of the facility at the guidance target intersection is stored for each direction in which the vehicle enters the guidance target intersection. Intersection guidance device.